[Marxism-Thaxis] CORRECTION Re: Benjamin Button
I butchered Swift's phrase. It should be "serene, peaceful state of a fool among knaves." Still from memory, but I think correct now. Carrol Carrol Cox wrote: > > Ralph Dumain wrote: > > > > Interesting. But I thought the message of Forrest Gump is that being > > white and a retard is a formula for bliss. > > Or as Swift put it in Tale of a Tub, "the serene, blissful state of > being a fool among roguess." > > Carrol > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Benjamin Button
Ralph Dumain wrote: > > Interesting. But I thought the message of Forrest Gump is that being > white and a retard is a formula for bliss. Or as Swift put it in Tale of a Tub, "the serene, blissful state of being a fool among roguess." Carrol ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Benjamin Button
Interesting. But I thought the message of Forrest Gump is that being white and a retard is a formula for bliss. At 11:06 AM 3/28/2010, Paddy Hackett wrote: >I watched the video version of The Curious Case of Benjamin >Button some weeks ago. >As a movie it was moderately entertaining and visually >impressive but certainly not encaptivating. It was of >excessively long duration. However much of it, even allowing >for poetic licence, was implausible. > >Essentially the film is about time. Its key theme is the >ageing process and the way this process is a real concrete >influence on the lives of people. The film draws our >attention to age and the relationship between the different >generations. In this way it somewhat challenges our minds >concerning the matter of age and even ageism. >Notwithstanding the ageism that exists in today's world the >film brings out the hard fact that age does, in a sense, get >in the way. It does this by showing how Benjamin's physical >evolution from a man into a boy and later a baby cannot be a >"proper" father to his child -nor "proper" lover to his >female partner. Again his birth in the form of an old man in >the form of a new born baby obstructs his relationships with >his peer group. The reversal of the aging process in >Benjamin seriously and inevitably influences his >relationships with other people. This is a fact that would >obtain under all social conditions. Indeed there may be an >evolutionary aspect to this matter involving natural >selection. And this is because age matters in the >relationship between individuals from different generations >whether under capitalism or communism. However under >capitalism the age question is more pronounced. And ageism >under capitalism is a real and oppressive issue. > >Other than that there is little more that I can say about >this film. Perhaps the short story, on which the movie is >loosely based, which I have not read is more comprehensive >and interesting. Surprisingly I discovered that at least one >film critic suggested that this movie resembles the Forest >Gump movie --because, while watching it, I had drawn a >similar conclusion. > >Paddy Hackett > http://paddy-hackett.blogspot.com/ > > >___ >Marxism-Thaxis mailing list >Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu >To change your options or unsubscribe go to: >http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Benjamin Button
I watched the video version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button some weeks ago. As a movie it was moderately entertaining and visually impressive but certainly not encaptivating. It was of excessively long duration. However much of it, even allowing for poetic licence, was implausible. Essentially the film is about time. Its key theme is the ageing process and the way this process is a real concrete influence on the lives of people. The film draws our attention to age and the relationship between the different generations. In this way it somewhat challenges our minds concerning the matter of age and even ageism. Notwithstanding the ageism that exists in today's world the film brings out the hard fact that age does, in a sense, get in the way. It does this by showing how Benjamin's physical evolution from a man into a boy and later a baby cannot be a "proper" father to his child -nor "proper" lover to his female partner. Again his birth in the form of an old man in the form of a new born baby obstructs his relationships with his peer group. The reversal of the aging process in Benjamin seriously and inevitably influences his relationships with other people. This is a fact that would obtain under all social conditions. Indeed there may be an evolutionary aspect to this matter involving natural selection. And this is because age matters in the relationship between individuals from different generations whether under capitalism or communism. However under capitalism the age question is more pronounced. And ageism under capitalism is a real and oppressive issue. Other than that there is little more that I can say about this film. Perhaps the short story, on which the movie is loosely based, which I have not read is more comprehensive and interesting. Surprisingly I discovered that at least one film critic suggested that this movie resembles the Forest Gump movie --because, while watching it, I had drawn a similar conclusion. Paddy Hackett http://paddy-hackett.blogspot.com/ ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Soviet Cybernetics
http://www.siam.org/news/news.php?id=488 Language, Mathematics, and Ideology SIAM NEWS November 7, 2002 Book Review Philip J. Davis From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics. By Slava Gerovitch, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002, 369 pages (54 of which are notes and references; illustrated with numerous photos of Soviet personalities) When I first learned of this book and read the first reviews several years ago, I immediately book this book on my want list. Never got hold of it, though. Now I'm reminded of the thick oppressive abusive fog of ideological language that strangled the Soviet mind throughout nearly all of its existence. Something to keep in mind when dealing with the undead. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Re-evaluating Lysenko
Jim Farmelant wrote: > > > On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:41:54 +0900 CeJ writes: > >> > > I guess if the project hadn't been authoritarian, it would have ben > > more 'efficient' and yielded enough bombs to wipe out even more of > > Japan. > > No, it would have been _less_ efficient. No one would, I thin, argue otherwise. But _efficiency_ is a stupid criterion for human activity. It constitutes what I call the Trap of the Present -- a trap glorified by Bernstein (The Movement is Everything) and decisively condemned by Luxemburg in her speeches at the a898 Converence of the SPD. Some former members of the SWP like to quote Cannon to the effect that "The art of politics is knowing what to do next," which is just another way of featureing efficiency rather than intelligence in political thinking. Carrol ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Re-evaluating Lysenko
On Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:41:54 +0900 CeJ writes: > Caroll Cox's limitation is he has, like Chomsky, this almost quaint > left-wing libertarian view about intellect, science, research and > academia. Perhaps he ought to sit down and do a Marxist critique of > his own career. > > Now about science in an authoritarian atmosphere. Look at the > Manhattan Project. MOST of it was a multi-billion dollar waste of > money. Most of it was bogus research projects that never yielded a > single achievement. It was done under a highly secretive and for > most > workers authoritarian program. After all that, two successful bomb > designs emerged in time to drop them on civilian populations in > Japan. If you are going to bring up the Manhattan Project, then I think it ought to be compared with the German A-bomb project, which failed to produce a bomb. Why did it fail? Well, primarily because it was never funded, anywhere, close to the level that the Manhattan Project was funded. The Germans simply didn't have the money and they were in far more desparate straights than the Americans were at the time. However, that's not the only reason for its failure. Another reason is that its head, Werner Heisenberg made some serious errors in his cailculations. A lot of people when commenting on the failure of the German A-bomb project seem to stop there. But the question in my mind is why didn't anyone working on the project step forward and correct Heisenberg's errors. And that, I think, speaks to what was then a major difference between the way American science operated (even under the relatively authoritarian and militaristic conditions of the Manhattan Project) and the way German science operated. In Germany universites of that time, senior professors were like little gods. They reigned supreme in their own departments and no mere underling would have dreamed of criticizing them or correcting them. Even if a scientist working in the German A-bomb project had become aware that Heisenberg was making mistakes in his calculations, he would, most likely, not dared to step forward to correct the great man, since that was simply not the done thing in German science at that time. In the Manhattan Project, despite the efforts of General Groves to impose military discipline on the scientists, things were still relatively loose and freewheeling among them, and that, I would submit, contributed to the success of the project. If a senior scientist, even an Oppenheimer or a Fermi, had made an error in his calculations, there would have been other, perhaps more junior, scientists who would have been willing to step forward to make the necessary corrections. Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant > I guess if the project hadn't been authoritarian, it would have ben > more 'efficient' and yielded enough bombs to wipe out even more of > Japan. > > CJ > > ___ Hotel Hotel pics, info and virtual tours. Click here to book a hotel online. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=Y5MOQRdCMvGvV28togFoGgAAJ1AP8ttsZd_TbiVxkZxsC3mBAAYAAADNAAATRAA= ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
